A history lesson
by Rachel Karen Green
Summary: Another ChandlerRachel fic. An affair from their past connects them...she did her best to forget it, but he's never been able to get her off of his mind. A year later, they're all friends. What happens now? Rated R for later chapters.
1. Prologue

_A/n: All different episodes are incorporated into this fic, and it starts with a scene from TOW the Flashback. And then The Pilot. Bare with me. There will be lots of flashbacks in this fic. I hope. _

_Another feeble attempt at a Chandler/Rachel fic. I seem to be stuck on the first one, so I thought that maybe writing a new one would help get rid of my writer's block. I hope you all enjoy this as much as you did the last one, and please..if you have any suggestions, by all means, let me know._

_**Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, they are the property of Bright, Kauffman, Crane and NBC. I just like playing with them.**_

Prologue

It was 1993. Twenty-three year old Rachel Green had just graduated from college, and now she was engaged, to a doctor, no less. Barry Farber. He was an orthodontist; Rachel had met him her junior year of college and they had been inseparable since. On the surface, she appeared happy. Inside, she was screaming. She knew he had cheated on her at least three times since they'd been together, but because her being with him made her parents happy, she stayed with him, no matter how much it tore her up inside. Growing up in Long Island, she had learned a thing or two about how to act like a "lady." All she had to do was smile and nod, and she could get anything she wanted.

On this particular night, her friends Joanne and Kiki decided they wanted to do something fun for a change, and after fifteen minutes of prodding and begging, they convinced her to go out with them. The three women piled into Rachel's car and drove to Greenwich Village, a place Rachel hadn't been since high school. Her best friend from high school, Monica Geller, still lived there, last she'd heard. She and Monica had drifted apart after their sophomore year of college, and until now Monica had never crossed her mind. Pulling into a parking space behind a bar, memories of her happy childhood flooded back, and she smiled faintly, before being snapped back to reality by her friends' screeching at her to get out of the car.

It was the last week the bar was going to be open, so it was packed. Monica had heard from the owner that it was going to be turned into a coffee shop. This caused her and her friends (who all lived upstairs) to wonder where exactly they were going to hang out now. Rachel walked into the bar with her friends, not seeing Monica and a dark-haired man standing by the pool table. Monica hadn't noticed her, either.

"Oh, look," Monica said to Chandler Bing, her dark-haired companion, "the pool table's free. Rack 'em up. I'll be back in a minute. Get ready for me to whip your butt." Chandler smirked at her.

"Okay, but after that, we're shootin' some pool," he quipped, and she just laughed as she made her way to the bathroom. Chandler had always been a sarcastic guy, for as long as they'd all known him. He was her brother Ross' roommate in college, and after Monica and Rachel had their falling-out, he and Monica became best friends. As he chalked up his pool cue, he overheard the conversation of three women, one of them stunningly gorgeous, sitting at the next table.

"Well," Joanne began, raising her glass, "I would like to propose a toast to the woman who, in one year from today, will become Mrs. Doctor Barry Farber, DDS." Rachel grinned and held out her hand.

"I think it's time to see the ring again," she said, and the three of them screamed, now holding Chandler's attention even more.

"Oh, isn't it exciting?" Kiki chimed in. "I mean, it's like having a boyfriend for life!" Rachel's smile fell.

"Yeah, I know..." she said, glancing down at the table.

"What?" Joanne asked. Rachel sighed.

"Oh, I don't know," Rachel replied. "I guess it's just the idea of **Barry** for the rest...of my life. I don't know...I feel like I need to have one last _fling,_ you know? To get it out of my system." Chandler's ears perked, and he didn't even notice when Monica came back.

"Rachel, stop!" Joanne said, shocked to hear this sort of thing come from Rachel.

"You're so bad!" Kiki giggled.

"I'm serious!" Rachel said. "I really, I think I need to just have some...meaningless sex...with the next guy I see." Seeing this as his opportunity to make a move, Chandler flung the white cueball in the direction of the table, startling the women and causing Rachel to look up. Chandler sauntered over, a silly smirk on his face, and picked up the ball.

"I, uh, I seem to have dropped my ball," he said, showing it to her. She just stared at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, so?" Not expecting this, Chandler floundered for a moment before clearing his throat.

"And...now I've picked it up again," he said, walking back to Monica, who saw who he was attempting to hit on.

"Oh, my God, I went to high school with her," Monica said. "Rachel! Rachel Green!" Rachel turned. Monica waved. "Hi!" Rachel nearly squealed as she got up to greet her old friend.

"Monica!" she exclaimed, holding up her ring finger to show Monica her engagement ring, before getting up to hug her. "Monica, look! Hi! What do you think?" Monica studied the ring intently.

"Wow! You can't even see where the Titanic hit it!" Rachel chuckled. They talked for a few minutes before Rachel left to get back to her friends, and then she left the building. Monica had said something to Chandler about how she'd probably never see Rachel again in her life, and then decided to go home herself.

"Yeah, I'm just going to hang around for a bit longer," Chandler said. "See if maybe Mike'll give me some free booze." Monica grinned and hugged him goodnight.

"Well, okay," she said. "See you tomorrow?"

"Sure thing," he replied, grinning. Monica smiled, and then left, walking upstairs.

Back in the car, Rachel couldn't get Chandler out of her head. She didn't know his name, but she just kept thinking about him. She was thinking so much about him that she missed her exit. After getting back on the freeway and dropping her friends off at home, she made a quick decision and drove back to the bar, not expecting him to be there, but she thought that if she didn't take this chance, it would never present itself again.

The door to the bar opened, and she was standing there. Chandler couldn't believe his eyes; was this really happening? Slowly, Rachel entered the room and closed the door behind her, walking towards him. He set his drink on the bar and walked toward her, a smile pasted on his face.

"I can't believe you came back," he said. She smirked.

"Don't say anything," she said, inching toward him, her heart beating hard and fast in her chest. She'd never done something like this before. "I don't want to speak, I don't want to think, I just want you to take me and kiss me and make love to me right here, right now." And with that she hit the jukebox with her fist, as The Byrd's "Time of the Season" began to play. Chandler's hands slipped around her waist and he kissed her slowly, hesitantly, as her hands slipped around his neck, pulling her toward him and deepening the kiss. He lifted her up by her waist and carried her over to the pool table, laying her down on it, as her legs wrapped around his waist.

Skip forward one year.

Monica, Chandler, Ross, Joey, and Phoebe were all sitting around Central Perk, their normal hangout ever since the bar closed down the previous year. Ross's wife had just revealed to him that she was a lesbian, and the divorce had been messy. The four friends were trying their best to comfort him.

"I'll be fine, alright?" Ross snapped. "Really, everyone. I hope she'll be very happy."

"No, you don't," Monica said.

"No, I don't, to hell with her, she left me!" Ross said, sighing dejectedly and leaning his head against the back of the orange couch. Joey chimed in.

"And you never knew she was a lesbian?" he asked. There was a pause before Ross snapped again.

"No, okay! She didn't know, how should I know?"

"Sometimes I wish I was a lesbian..." Chandler said, seemingly out of nowhere. The group stared at him. He looked up. "..Did I say that out loud?" Joey shook his head and looked at Ross.

"Alright, Ross, look," he began. "You're feeling a lot of pain right now. You're angry. You're hurtin'. Can I tell you what the answer is?" He waited for Ross to nod before continuing. "Strip joint! C'mon, you're single! Have some hormones!" The others shook their heads, except for Phoebe, who was touched by Joey's attempt to give advice. She smiled. Ross sighed.

"But I don't _want_ to be single," Ross said. "I just..I just want to be married again." At that moment, a very wet Rachel Green came bursting in the door, wearing a wedding dress. The entire group, as well as the entire restaurant, turned to look at her as she ran for the counter. Monica followed.

"And I just want a million dolllars!" Chandler quipped, gesturing toward the door. He hadn't noticed _who_ it was that had just come through the door, and it didn't hit him until...

"Rachel?!" Monica said, coming up behind her. Chandler's heart leapt into his throat.


	2. New Beginnings

_A/n: I've decided to be nice and not make you all wait forever for the next installment. So here it is, enjoy! Also, I am very well aware that copying the script isn't something that's good to do...but I do have a method to my madness. My prologues are always taken from the script, it's just how I work. Thanks for the reviews, hope you all like this one!_

_**Disclaimer: STILL don't own 'em. I promise.**_

**One: New beginnings**

"Oh, God, Monica, hi!" Rachel squealed, hugging her friend. The group continued to stare at this strange woman in the wet wedding dress. Chandler swallowed thickly; maybe she didn't remember him. He glanced down at his knuckles as Rachel continued talking. "I just went to your building and you weren't there and then this guy with a big hammer said you might be here, and you are, you are!" She hugged Monica again, and the waitress behind the counter asked if she wanted coffee. Monica ordered a decaf for Rachel and shuffled her around the couch to meet her friends.

"Okay, everybody," Monica started, "this is Rachel, another Lincoln High survivor. And this is everybody, this is Chandler, and Phoebe, and Joey, and you remember my brother Ross?"

"Hi, sure!" she said, going to hug hum...and then his umbrella opened instead. Defeated, Ross sat back down in his chair, and Rachel took a seat on the couch. Chandler could do nothing but stare at her. _What are the odds?_ he asked himself. _I have a one-nighter with this woman a year ago, after Monica told me she'd probably never see her again...and she never even knew my name....and now she's here? This kind of thing **only** happens to me._ The five of them sat quietly, all staring at Rachel, waiting for some kind of explanation. Monica finally broke the silence.

"So, are you gonna tell us now," she said, "or are we waiting for four wet bridesmaids?" Rachel chuckled and shook her head, before regaling them of her wedding from hell.

"Oh, God," she started. "Well, it started about a half hour before the wedding. I was in the room where we were keeping all the presents, and I was looking at this gravy boat. This really gorgeous, _Limouges_ gravy boat. When all of a sudden, I realized that I was more turned on by this gravy boat than by Barry! And then I got really freaked out, and that's when it hit me: how much Barry looks like Mr. Potato Head. Y'know, I mean, I knew he always looked familiar, but...Anyway. I just had to get out of there, and I started wondering, why am I doing this and who am I doing this for? So, anyway, I just didn't know where to go, and I know you and I have kind of drifted apart, but you were the only person I knew who still lived here in the city."

"Who wasn't invited to the wedding," Monica replied. Rachel grimaced.

"Ooh, I was kind of hoping that wouldn't be an issue," she said with a sigh, and leaned back into the couch.

Later that day, it was determined that Rachel would be moving in with Monica, because her father had decided to stop giving her any money. Chandler couldn't believe it. After Monica got in from her date with Paul that night, Chandler was at her door, banging on it. Monica, clad in a robe, wearily stepped out into the hallway and closed her door behind her.

"What is the matter with you?!" she snapped. "It's three in the morning!"

"I know," he said, "but I needed to talk to you about this whole...Rachel moving in thing."

"What about it?"

"Does she have to move in with you? I mean, can't we, like, put her in with Phoebe or something?" Monica laughed.

"Chandler, what's the matter with you? No, we can't put her in with Phoebe...do you...do you have a problem with Rachel?" Chandler froze. He had never told any of them about that night at the bar. "Well?"

"I, uh...." he ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, avoiding her eyes. "No, I don't, it's just that, uh..." He was stuck. He was going to have to tell her. Monica impatiently crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

"Chandler, do you mind? I sort of ," she said, glancing back over her shoulder at her apartment. Chandler grinned.

"Company?" he said. "Did you....is Paul in there?" Monica visibly blushed and glanced at her feet.

"No..."

"Yes he is!" Chandler exclaimed, louder than he should have.

"Shh! Yes, okay? He's in there!" Monica snapped. "And if I stay out here much longer he might leave! So, can we talk tomorrow?" Chandler sighed and ran his hands through his hair again.

"Yeah, we'll talk tomorrow," he said. Monica smiled and patted his arm.

"Thanks, Chandler. Now, if you bang on my door again tonight, I will have to kill you," she said, and turned and went back into her apartment. Chandler returned to his and went to bed, knowing he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep. Knowing that she was just across the hall was enough to turn him into an insomniac.

Meanwhile, across the hall in her bedroom, Rachel was having trouble sleeping as well. And all the noise coming from Monica's bedroom certainly wasn't helping things. But the thing that was keeping her up the most wasn't the fact that Monica and Paul were having loud sex in the next room; it wasn't even that she was feeling guilty for leaving Barry at the altar. It was the fact that Chandler was across the hall. She thought about that one night they had all the time; she had regretted not getting his name, and in a way he was indirectly responsible for making Rachel change her mind about getting married. She was shocked to see him sitting there in the coffee house that afternoon, and since she'd moved her stuff into Monica's, they hadn't said two words to each other. They hadn't even looked at each other, and it was bothering her. After mulling over it in her head for about fifteen minutes, she slipped her robe on, and quietly padded across the apartment and out into the hall.

Chandler was watching late-night infomercials when there was a light knock at the door. Thinking it was Joey, who often locks himself out late at night, he shouted over his shoulder that the door was open. He heard it open and waiting to hear Joey come in with a girl, but when he heard nothing, he turned around and saw Rachel standing there. She smiled softly, her hands in the pockets of her robe. Chandler nearly jumped out of his chair.


End file.
